If there's one thing I miss in the current smartphone industry, it's design. Honest to good, real design. We basically see one boring slab after another, void of any true identity, whether it's iPhone, Samsung, or any of the others. In this boring world of grey, black, and the occasional white, Nokia is the jester, coming up with its own unique designs and crazy colour selection. Today, the company unveiled the Lumia 920 and 820 to continue this trend.

For the sake of this industry, I hope Microsoft fails and gets the boot they deserve for all those years.

Also, their designs are less and less "inspired": they are regurgitating again and again the N9 body. A bland design, a colored rouded rectangle - yes, it is a rounded rectangle too - instead of a black one. Meh.

And, the last straw on the unicorn's back: the Windows Phone UI is supposed to be less boring than iOS and Android? Please. It is wildly different (...except if you see it as a collection of widgets as a front page), but less boring?

I would be right if MS didn't have killing any competitors (with any means, legal or not) in its DNA.
I want to emphasize once again: killing not competing (I admit that Apple isn't any better recently).
They are not about choice for the consumer but removing that through network effects that are totally outside of consumer control. Ok, XBOX is another story, a sign or "new" MS, but answer me is XBOX a sustainable business for them? Aren't they still making most revenue from their monopolies?

I'm all for competition but be it RIM, WebOs, Japanese super duper mistery OS, but pleeeaase not MS.

I would be right if MS didn't have killing any competitors (with any means, legal or not) in its DNA.
I want to emphasize once again: killing not competing (I admit that Apple isn't any better recently).
They are not about choice for the consumer but removing that through network effects that are totally outside of consumer control. Ok, XBOX is another story, a sign or "new" MS, but answer me is XBOX a sustainable business for them? Aren't they still making most revenue from their monopolies?

I'm all for competition but be it RIM, WebOs, Japanese super duper mistery OS, but pleeeaase not MS.

Paging, dsmogor. The 1990s are calling you. Seriously, dude, it's a new world. Microsoft isn't squaring off against a few poorly coordinated, inept players anymore. Google, Apple, Etc are all very well-financed and dominant in their markets. Any fears that you have are utterly muted by current reality. Microsoft will be *lucky* to gain even relevant market share in search, mobile, tablets. And given that, anything which makes the dominant players continue to compete, produce better products, and lower prices is good for everyone. Rooting for monopolies is what you're doing. Bad, bad idea. Apple and Google are the new Microsofts -- and in some ways, they are a lot worse.